Key Johnsburg murder witness released from prison

WOODSTOCK – The man who said he delivered what may have been the fatal blow to a Johnsburg teenager in 2002 is a free man again after being released from prison Tuesday on unrelated charges.

Shane Lamb, 28, had been at the Dixon Correctional Center since he was taken back into custody on a parole violation in November.

His original six-year sentence was for drug convictions unrelated to the disappearance, and presumed homicide, of 17-year-old Brian Carrick. Lamb was granted immunity for his testimony against Mario Casciaro, 29, who has been charged with first-degree murder.

Casciaro has gone to trial twice. He was acquitted in 2009 of perjury charges and was tried on the murder charges in January 2012, but that trial ended with a hung jury.

It was during the second trial that Lamb, who was a prison inmate at the time he took the stand, testified that Casciaro told him to “talk” to Carrick about a $500 drug debt.

Lamb said he confronted Carrick in the cooler at the back of the Val’s Foods grocery store where they all worked and hit Carrick, who “went down.”

Lamb said Casciaro told him to leave after the confrontation and that he doesn’t know what happened after that.

Carrick’s body has not been found.

Lamb was released on parole in May, but sent back to the Illinois Department of Corrections after being charged in a misdemeanor battery case.

Police have said that Lamb made comments to women at a McHenry bar. Two men stepped in, and Lamb allegedly punched them repeatedly in the head and face.

As a result, he served the rest of his “parole” while incarcerated, IDOC spokeswoman Stacey Solano said.

Lamb now has been discharged from the system and no longer is under the department’s jurisdiction, Solano said.

The misdemeanor case against him still is pending with a scheduled court date of March 11.

Two weeks later, Casciaro’s second murder trial is scheduled to begin, and Lamb must testify as part of his immunity agreement.